Drug trafficking mum gets second chance at life

Jessica Grewal
Senior Reporter APN Newsdesk NSW Bureau
Working from Sydney, Jessica specialises in crime/court reporting, filing for APN’s regional mastheads in Northern NSW as well as providing national content for the group.
She was previously Chief Reporter at the Fraser Coast Chronicle in Hervey Bay, Queensland where she grew up and trained.
Early in her career, she was named Queensland Young Journalist of the Year at the Clarion Awards.
More recently, she was finalist at the 2013 Kennedy Awards for Excellence in NSW Journalism in both the...

The court heard she was arrested in 2015 after a series of "bad choices” landed her at the centre of a Sunshine Coast police operation.

Raids of Hockney's Caloundra home, along with phone intercepts and the tracking of her regular visitors, revealed she had supplied methamphetamine to at least 22 people more than 80 times over 12 months. She also sold marijuana as a "side business”.

During the same period, she was caught driving disqualified three times in five months.

Documents before the courts showed that while Hockney had an unenviable criminal history, she had turned her life around during her 20-month stay at the low security Numinbah jail where she was a leader among her peers and worked up to six days a week.

She told the court she had enjoyed the responsibility and intended to stay off drugs with the support of her parents who cared for her children while she was in custody.

Hockney was sentenced to a total of five years in jail. Taking into account the time already served, the remainder of the sentence was suspended immediately, allowing Hockney to go home to her children.

Justice Ann Lyons said "20 months is a long time” and warned it would take time for Hockney to readjust to life with her family.

"Your criminal history doesn't speak well of you. It's not impressive. But it is impressive that you have done that time in custody and you've got such glowing reports. Clearly you have got skills and you can be a leader and you've got some good things going for you,”

"It occurs to me that you are going to have a bit of a tough time when you get released. So just, that little voice in your head, when it does get tough, don't let it say 'I'm going to turn back to drugs'.”